Sunday, April 6, 2014

Thrills Are No Accident

The
Accident – Chris Pavone (Crown Books)

One of the most common axioms about writing is “write
what you know.” So it should come as no surprise that author Chris Pavone, who
spent much of his career working for a variety of publishing houses, in a variety
of roles, most notably as an editor; would build the premise of his latest
book, The Accident in the world of
publishing.

An anonymously submitted, apparently true, crime
thriller, that involves a high profile media mogul and that somewhat
implausibly crosses paths with government spies, lands in the lap of a down on
her luck agent. It doesn’t take long for Isabel Reed to realize the
goldmine/ticking time bomb that is in her possession.

The race is on; can she stay alive long enough to get
the story told in the face of the forces that want to keep it under wraps. Certainly
an interesting concept, the difficulty is in the execution; with so many characters
and so many parallel storylines it easy for the reader to get muddled down in
the mix. A couple of the characters stories are non-starters and seem to be
here just for window dressing.

There have been a few recent bestsellers that started
slowly, with a bit of confusion, so it’s worth giving The Accident the benefit of time while the story gears up. With a
bit of added concentration the story will hang tough.